Solar services company Sunnova Energy announced it would cut 300 jobs to reduce costs and streamline its operations.
Credit: Sunnova
The 300 layoffs are mostly in its commercial organization and represent 15% of the company’s total workforce. Sunnova will have $35 million in annual cash savings due to the job cuts.
Sunnova said it is positioning itself for long-term success in an evolving market that is currently facing high interest rates and policy uncertainty.
“As we continue to focus on capital efficiency and our high-margin core customers through TPO origination, we must always optimize within the current economic and policy landscape,” said John Berger, Sunnova CEO. “To better position Sunnova for long-term success, we are taking proactive steps to streamline our operations while maintaining a strong foundation to support our valued dealer network and end-use customers. These decisions are never easy, and we recognize the impact they have on every member of the team. To those who will not be moving forward with us, we are committed to providing support during this transition and deeply appreciate all they have given to our organization. We are deeply grateful for their contributions and are committed to supporting those affected during this transition.”
Sunnova works with local solar installation companies to offer customers solar through third-party ownership (TPO) contracts. Customers lease their solar projects from Sunnova. Last year, Sunnova mandated that all of its solar projects qualify for domestic content, providing solar installers with a limited number of American-made solar products to complete projects. Sunnova said this move would support domestic manufacturing, but it also allows Sunnova to claim a larger investment tax credit amount on the TPO projects.
Still, much of the TPO market has experienced a turbulent last few quarters due to high interest rates. SunPower filed for bankruptcy in August 2024, and Sunrun has increased its focus on energy storage and ancillary EV services to weather the solarcoaster.
“Sunnova will have $35 million in annual cash savings due to the job cuts.”
Context, almost $117K per employee laid off.
“Sunnova works with local solar installation companies to offer customers solar through third-party ownership (TPO) contracts.”
Since the SunPower chapter 11 filing, this portends another round and déjà vu of when SolarCity sold to TESLA and pulled out of a bunch of developed regions around 2015-2016. My take away is try a local electrical company that does solar PV and (always) buy, never lease the ‘system’ or your roof for the companies ‘system’. IF you buy the system outright, you don’t get the come ons of 20-30 year ‘no hassle’ warranty, repair and maintenance agreement contracts available. Kind of like the many Air Conditioning Heating businesses, if one goes out of business one can find another for your A/C parts. and service. Aside from private owned companies, one it seems large corporate solar PV companies have come and gone over the last 10-15 years. That 20 year warranty promise can be long gone when one actually does have a problem with their system. Considerably it will more than likely be an inverter and with whole house inverters it is statistically the cooling fan that goes bad and then takes out the digital logic power supply next. This is where dealing with the manufacturer is a make or break situation. IF the manufacturer will not accept some error code given by the failing inverter and generate an RMA to send a refurbished or new inverter to swap, you will also have an after sales service issue to be resolved. Knock on wood, I have never had to deal with a broken solar PV panel replacement with 20 years experience of a home system. I have had to replace two inverters (under warranty) in that same period of time.